JACKSON, Miss. – It was a tough road swing for the Alcorn State University volleyball program as the Lady Braves dropped both matches of a doubleheader at Williams Baptist (5-11) on Monday and fell at Millsaps (5-6) on Tuesday.
Monday's doubleheader marked the first meeting with Williams Baptist. Tuesday was the second meeting with Millsaps, a series the Majors now lead 2-0.
Williams Baptist Match 1 | L, 2-3 (14-25, 25-22, 23-25, 25-22, 13-15)
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Junior Singryd Valadares scored a team-high 20 kills with three aces, followed by freshman Ashley Samuel with 12 kills. Freshman Jasmine Chambers and senior Brittney Dumas contributed 27 and 19 assists respectively. Samuel made three blocks and freshman Kaylyn Latin tallied 21 digs.
After a slow start in the opening set, Alcorn came back to take set two to knot the match at 1-1. The two teams continued to trade sets, with the host Lady Eagles taking the third and the Lady Braves forcing a decisive fifth set. In the final set, Williams Baptist jumped out to an early 8-4 lead before Alcorn pulled to within 9-7. After the Lady Eagles pulled away again, the Lady Braves cut the lead to 14-13, but the hosts scored the final kill to claim the first match of the doubleheader.
Williams Baptist Match 2 | L, 0-3 (16-27, 27-29, 18-25)
In the second match of the doubleheader, freshman Joeli Warren-Smith finished with eight kills and Chambers totaled six kills with 18 assists, an ace, a block, and five digs. Freshman Octavia Dixon served four aces and freshman Fiapaipai Iosia, named the SWAC Newcomer of the Week on Tuesday, recorded 16 digs.
Sets one and three belonged to the Lady Eagles as Williams Baptist took advantage of a few Alcorn attacking errors, but the Lady Braves made the hosts work for set two. Alcorn refused to go away in the second set and the Lady Eagles would need 29 points to claim the second match point.
Millsaps | L, 1-3 (14-25, 25-22, 18-25, 9-25)
Iosia and Chambers led the Lady Braves against the Majors with eight and six kills respectively. Chambers added 16 assists, Samuel made three blocks, and Iosia recorded 25 digs.
Alcorn and Millsaps were neck and neck in the opening set, but the hosts took the first match point with an 11-1 run. In set two, the Lady Braves used a 10-2 run to pull away early and were able to hold off the Majors to knot the score at 1-1. Alcorn was in control to start off the third set, but Millsaps stormed back with seven unanswered and never looked back. The final set saw the Majors in control from start to finish courtesy of runs of 5-0 and 6-0.
The Lady Braves travel to Houston, Texas this Friday as they open conference play at the SWAC Volleyball Round-Up, hosted by Texas Southern. Alcorn squares off with the host Lady Tigers in a 10 a.m. meeting Friday morning, followed by a 7 p.m. match that evening with Southern.
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